A FORCED marriage in Scotland has been blocked after the authorities won their first court order to prevent it taking place following the introduction of new legislation which came into force five months ago.
Nearly 1,500 people – mostly Indian and Pakistani – facing marriages under duress, last year sought help from the London-based Forced Marriage Unit – run jointly by the foreign and commonwealth office and the home office.
Under UK law, courts can issue forced marriage protection orders, but the Scottish government has gone further by making the breaching of such an order an automatic criminal offence, punishable by a two-year jail term.
The Scottish authorities have refused to identify the victim by age and sex, though more than eight in 10 victims reported up to now are young women. The court order remains in place indefinitely.
Anyone seeking to breach the order, said Scottish health secretary Nicola Sturgeon, would “feel the full force of the law”, adding that those who refused a forced marriage were “often subjected to threats, assault, captivity or worse at the hands of their own family”.
Fifty people have been helped by Scotland’s forced marriage and domestic abuse helpline since the law was strengthened last year, while 23 women fleeing forced marriages were housed at Edinburgh’s two women refuges in 2011.
“Most reported cases so far have involved Pakistani, Indian and Bangladeshi families,” according to a Scottish government briefing paper. “However, there have been cases involving east Asian, Middle Eastern, European, gypsy and Travellers and African communities.”
In one case, a 17-year-old girl fled from home after she refused to marry a man in India chosen by her grandmother. Angry, her parents told her she was told that she was “a spoiled brat” who had spent too much time with the “goris” (fair-skinned girls).
“I have no friends outside my family and cousins,” she said. “I was never allowed to have friends. My mum would watch me going to school and coming back from school to make sure I am coming straight home.”
Eventually, she returned home, where she was locked in her room and slapped by relatives. “I heard them talking of taking me to India to amend their mistake. I was scared and did not know how to get out of the situation.
Frightened, she told police that she had been “married” to the man in a telephone “ceremony”, but she did not take it seriously until she realised that her family was preparing to bring the man to Britain.
Helped again by police, she was housed at a refuge for six months.
However, her mother has now become ill and the family have again asked for her to come home, claiming that the marriage is finished. “I don’t know what I should do; after all, they are my parents,” she says.
